“Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

I am often asked what Academic Affairs will be working on in light of our new emerging strategic plan. As usual, plenty.

“Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart.”

-- Vaclav Havel, The Impossible Will Take a Little While

I wanted my first blog posting of the academic year to welcome you back in different manner. I suppose you could call this blog posting an example of the scholarship of application because I’m going to apply an idea I came across while reading the book The Impossible Will Take a Little While by Paul Rogat Loeb and apply to another domain area, namely the noble art of teaching.